Bornmann, L., & Haunschild, R. (2018). Allegation of scientific misconduct increases Twitter attention. Scientometrics, 115(2), 1097-1100. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11192-018-2698-6

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Researchers studied the paper “In Vitro Modeling of Blood-Brain Barrier with Human iPSC-Derived Endothelial Cells, Pericytes, Neurons, and Astrocytes via Notch Signaling” published in the Stem Cell Reports journal by Yamamizu et al that was retracted due to concerns regarding the authenticity of certain images that seemed to be fabricated. They concluded that tweets are not indicative of research quality because the number of rate of tweets can change drastically due to retractions or research going viral due to reasons unrelated to its content. 

Allegation of scientific misconduct increases Twitter attention

- Collected Twitter data from Altmetric.com on January 26, 2018
- Large increases in tweets after retraction (42 before vs. 502 after retraction)
- This specific paper’s Altmetric score is in the top 5% for all research – meaning that its retraction played a huge role beyond the scientific community

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